Türker İnanoğlu

Türker İnanoğlu (18 May 1936 - 2 April 2024) was a Turkish screenwriter, film director and producer. İnanoğlu came in contact with the cinema when he was a student at the Istanbul Academy of Applied Fine Arts in 1957. After working as assistant to directors Ömer Lütfi Akat and Nişan Hançer in eleven movies, he directed in 1960 his first feature Senden Ayrı Yaşayamam.

After directing nine movies in the studios of Yeşilçam, the Turkish Hollywood, İnanoğlu established in 1959 his own film company Erler Film, which is today the oldest film production company in Turkey still in business. Since then, he produced 126 black-and-white and color films, among them 21 co-productions with Greece, Italy and Iran. He executed also the productions of American, Japanese, French and German filmmakers’ documentary films shot in Turkey.

Until now, he directed 82 movies. In 1979, İnanoğlu started the video business in Turkey by founding the first video company, Ulusal Video. His company distributed video copies of domestic movies to around 1,500 video clubs in Turkey and abroad. He contributed so five years long to the survival of Turkish cinema, which found itself in a big economic crisis.

To produce news and entertainment programs for the television, he established a studio in 1985. In this studio, İnanoğlu produced very popular programs like Bir Başka Gece ("Another night"), Hodri Meydan ("Challenge"), Gecenin getirdikleri ("Things came by night") for the then only TV channel in Turkey, TRT. Later, following the opening of private TV channels, he continued to produce TV programs for channels like Star TV, Show TV, Kanal 6 and ATV, totaling to 10,000 hours.

In 1994, İnanoğlu became president of the channel ATV and helped it became a leader in the sector. Recently, he established a cable TV channel, Süper Kanal He co-founded sectoral associations and served as their chairman. Recently, he is the honorary president of the Turkish Association of Owners of Cinema Arts, SESAM. In 1997, he set up the Türker İnanoğlu Cinema Foundation and transferred all the copyrights on his productions to this charity institution with social and educational goals for the Turkish cinema.

He was died on April 2, 2024 in İstanbul, Turkey.